On May 10th,
2005,
the Carolwood organization and John Lasseter had
planned a special treat for the beloved Ollie Johnston. The premise of
the ruse was that the Carolwood group was going to honor
Ollie for his contribution to the organization.

What they really wanted was to give Ollie an opportunity to once again
ride his treasured
full sized locomotive the “Marie E”, lovingly named
for his wife Marie. The train was secluded
in the tunnel by the New Orleans Square station. Ollie, who was
93 at
the time, was really surprised as the “Marie E” pulled into the
Frontierland Station.

The Marie E at
Disneyland

A video
clip of the event by Bruce Gordon

Ollie
had
rebuilt
the
“Marie
E” in his driveway in La Canada-Flintridge and moved it to a
track on his property in Julian, Ca. that he and his sons had
constructed for it.

Ollie sold the train to John, around 2002, when he was no longer able
to operate it. John had the train expertly rejuvenated, and
moved it to his own track in Northern California, where he gives it the
same care as Ollie.

John
had gone to the Disneyland people, who at first denied the idea of
putting the “Marie on the Disney track in the park. (The trains were
the same gauge). Being someone who was not willing to take “no” for an
answer, John put his legal team on the problem. They came up with
an insurance loop hole, which said props from a movie could be
displayed, but only employees of the that company could touch or ride
the prop.

At his own expense, John had the train trucked from northern California
to Disneyland. Friends of Ollie's, along with the executive team at
Disney such as Michael Eisner, and soon to be chairman, Bob Iger, as
well as Howard Green signed a contract making them Pixar employees for
the day at $1 each.

Even though it
had been years since he had seen the train, he took the
throttle and ran the engine around the park three times. As you can see
in the video, he even stopped the train precisely in front of cameraman
Bruce Gordon’s hew HD camera. (The late, great, Imagineer Bruce
Gordon shot and edited this footage)

Friends gathered, including the wife and family of his dear friend and
collaborator, Jeanette and Ted Thomas. Missing was Ollie’s own
wife, Marie, who sadly passed away less that a week after this event.